This is my first post but I've been using this site extensively since the end of May when I decided to make a real push at RTK (I had previously made a half hearted attempt a couple of years ago but just sort of stopped after about 200 or so). I'm currently on about 840, but when I did my review today I was trouble to see that I missed #655 "discard" for the fifth time, and that I have not yet gotten it right on a review. I'm usually between 80-90% correct during my reviews, so its frustrating to miss this one so often. The main problem I'm having is that whenever this word comes up I immediately write down the kanji for #297 "dispose". There's no time staring blanking waiting for the story to come to me, which is what usually happens with my trouble kanji, the wrong story comes so immediately that I think it must be correct.

This kind of confustion has happened before, mostly between "admonish" and "chastise," but for some reason not as badly. Any advice on how to get past this? I've read the user submitted stories, and think the one about some sticking a finger in cottage cheese is a good one. I'm even fairly sure that if I saw the kanji that story would come to mind and I could identify the meaning. I just draw the wrong kanji when I see this keyword.

I think if you're just mixing them up there is no problem, as long as you know both. If you just keeping writing the wrong one, try thinking "ok, this one ='m thinking of isn't it, I'll do the other one." Either that or let them sort out when you learn readings/compounds. It shouldn't be a problem.

Yo, there are some juicy threads about some of these same kanji already. Try to mine them and you will find great information.

Tought for "discard" I guess there is no thread.

I imagine it as: You are playing cards with our familiy in the shed (I use shed as my keyword for the right part of it). When your sister noticed you were stealing she bit your finger. And you had to discard that card.

I use discard in the sense of throwing something away. I imagine a fat guy sitting in a laid-back recliner at home, in his cottage, eating potato chips. When he's done with a bag, he flicks it out the front door with his finger, discarding it. Emblematic of american culture, perhaps.

I used to have that problem too, and still do for a few other kanji as well. I'm lazy as anything, so when that happens I don't really try to fix it too hard. If I can't remember which is which, I just write down both, and if either are correct I count it as a passed. The kanji basically mean the same thing, anyway, so I don't get caught up on matching an artificial English keyword as long as I legitimately remember how to write them. I'm much more interested in knowing how to write them from a trigger than on their prescribed meanings, anyway - even if it's the wrong trigger.

I have problems with similar readings also. What I do is change the English side in anki to be more descriptive and detailed (from a dictionary). Example sentences help too.

I discard a brochure advertising a new-age, finger-shaped cottage made by someone. I discard the brochure because I don't want to spend my time in a finger-shaped cottage.

The cottage is just like a finger sticking out of the ground and pointing into the sky. The finger nail is like a window.

Whenever I have two kanji which are close in meaning and I confuse all the time (as in "discard" and "dispose"), I make up one story for both kanji and put the respective primitives near the appropriate keyword.

well, this ain't pretty, but in the rare times that I fail a card for the 3rd time, I go "hardcore", which means, I make up a pornographic story for it... and I use the elements as metaphors for sexual parts... Yes, it is not nice to suggest something like this, but.... I never failed those cards again after doing this (._.)... sorry guys.

My story was
You discard a card and turn the next card over with your fingertips, and you win!! Full Cottage! Wait...what?

I think it's a good idea to associate discard with cards, thats what springs to my mind as soon as I hear it anyway...

I always discard the cottage cheese when I find fingers in it! @_@

That worked for me. Ugh.